Ova Charged, with seven straight stakes victories, hungry for more

Ova Charged can mack down with the best of them and perhaps the only thing that matches her appetite is her accomplishments.

She owns the year’s highest Beyer Speed Figure, a 113, and is coming off her seventh consecutive stakes win. It came in the $125,000 Chicken Fried Stakes at Lone Star Park near Dallas on June 29.

The Louisiana Downs-based Ova Charged was weighed during her trip to Texas, and tipped the scale at 1,188 pounds. And for a mare "that’s not 16 hands,” the height-to-weight proportion makes for one stout racehorse.

“She’s my chunka woman,” quipped trainer Shane Wilson. “She’s strong. It has a lot to do with why she finishes up like she does against the girls.

“She’ll eat 12 quarts of feed at night. Fill up the tub, she’ll eat it all. She doesn’t leave any feed.”

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Ova Charged – no surprise – cleaned up all of her feed following her win in the Chicken Fried. She took the five-eighths of a mile turf race for fillies in mares by more than two lengths. For covering the distance in a rapid 55.86, Ova Charged earned a Beyer of 90.

“She’s amazing,” Wilson said. “That’s the fourth or fifth different place we’ve taken her to. She just stood in the paddock watching everything.

“The race played out the way we thought. We didn’t want to get in a speed duel. She doesn’t have to be in front.”

Ova Charged broke from the rail under jockey Jose Guerrero, settled behind a wall of horses in sixth, and when the time came, shuttled home.

“For whatever reason, the turf just doesn’t tire her,” Wilson said. “When she runs on the turf, the next day, she’s running the stall, playing and squealing.”

The Chicken Fried came during a streak that started in December and includes wins in such races as the Grade 3 Unbridled Sidney at Churchill Downs and the Page Cortez at Fair Grounds, for which she earned the Beyer of 113.

A trip back to Kentucky could be next, said Wilson. He said Ova Charged has the option of the $250,000 Kentucky Downs Preview Ladies Turf Sprint on Aug. 3 at Ellis Park, but could wait for the Grade 2 Ladies Turf Sprint on Aug. 31 at Kentucky Downs.

“She’ll probably just chill out this month of July,” Wilson said. “We’ll give her the full month of July to get revved up.”

Wilson said he also is looking at other options available to Ova Charged. The Louisiana-bred daughter of Star Guitar is moving closer to $1 million in earnings with a current bankroll $918,575. She races for her breeder, Brittlyn Stable.

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